Girls Middle School Soccer Team Receives an Injection of New Blood

In the beginning of this school year, 18 new girls coming from 5th grade joined The Columbus School  Girls Middle School Soccer Team, as they moved up from elementary to 6th grade.

As a new school year started in August, these new players that came from 5th grade will play an important role and impact in this year’s team.

“This group of girls are really committed, they go to the training’s and matches on the weekends,” Wilson Jairo Mejia, Girls Middle School Soccer Coach, said. “These girls make the difference because of their hard work in trainings. They can provide a lot in different competitions as they are more committed than some 7th graders.”

With a group of 39 girls, the team is preparing for multiple championships, that include the Marymount Cup, Columbus Cup, Vermont Cup, Nosotras Cup, Envigado’s Inder Cup, and the Colombian Binational games in mid-March. The coach expects an excellent integration between the new girls and 7th and 8th graders  to maintain an attitude of collaboration and to learn new strategies as they prepare for competition. 

“Integrating the new girls to the team is necessary for their success, as many of them are really shy and tend to have fear toward the other girls,” Elisa Abad, 7th grade player, said.

Playing in middle school is different from elementary, not only because players need to adapt to a new team, but because they will play against bigger and better players. The Coach Mejia complements the elementary soccer program for their excellent work preparing the players, but as playing in middle school requires that players build on the basics learned in elementary and learn to play at a faster pace against bigger girls.

“I felt a little bit different because in elementary we didn’t put a lot of effort in the game and this year in middle school I felt that it is more strict, so it’s like better, you learn more and you can win all the games,” Valentina Garces, 6th grade, said.

As the new players adapt, they challenge themselves and set high goals to win and improve every match; as well as having a great teamwork, where they help each other and fight for every tournament as a team. The girls expect to play and will have opportunities in the different tournaments scheduled this year. 

“I think I am adapting step by step with all the girls, and that maybe some girls are like leaving sixth graders out, but I think that they will improve and treat us as part of the team; they should accept us like we accept them,” Garces said.